Thanks Kirsty Cooper, I did Manchester this year,Rome next, so good to know. Manchester OK, I heard complaints about lack of support, but would rather have a bit of peace and quiet myself, I don't like people calling my name and telling me to run faster or keep going, it winds me up.

Manchester didn't allow music, which was a disaster for me, hopefully Italians don't give a stuff. Also the start line wasn't at all clear so loads of us didn't know it had started and were still walking which was a real pain, as we lost about five mins and it was disconcerting, so we then ran faster to make up, Got tire der than necessary too early blah blah!

You guys, what are you like! The concept of run walk is that it keeps energy and bounce in the legs, so most of the faster run walkers eg sub 3.30, don't walk after about 18m, but power past the macho, 'walking is for wimps' type folks towards the end. If someone gave you a new power gel, or great new shoes to take off 10 mins you'd bite their hands off, it's just a different way of optimising muscle usage.

I've only done a couple of slow marathons, but started at 52, after a lifetime of sloth, and only trained 2-3 times a week. but managed sub 5 hours with a very painful IT band problem from 10-20m, but the run walk meant I really did speed up when it went away and caught up quite a bit of time in last 6.